War and Victory Celebrations through a Child's Eyes

I was a child during the war, living in a small village in South Wales. At the age of 3 or 4 years I remember American soldiers driving through the village in open trucks. Everyone was waving and the soldiers were waving back. In one of the trucks there were some black men waving - I had never seen a black face before. Everyone was happy, especially as they were throwing sweets, though I was sad that I didn't get any!

I remember VE Day in the same village in 1945. I knew there was something special going on, and that Hitler was a very bad man. My friend and I stood at the garden gate and some young men from the village had an effigy of Hitlerand said they were going to hang him from a lamppost. We thought it really was Hitler and seeing him strung up on a lamppost made us very, very frightened. Then we had a street party on some ground nest to the main road. Bus drivers stopped and shouted and waved to us. It was a very special day!